A method of creating document hyperlinks that allow a user to jump to another object or page within the same document or in another document all together--either on a local storage device, or on a remote storage device over a local area network, private wide area network, or the Internet. Hyperlinks that access a document from the Internet are called URL hyperlinks. A URL hyperlink in accordance with the present invention can be created as a new object (e.g., a graphics figure or text) or assigned to an existing object. With a figure-based hyperlink, a user can click anywhere within the figure's bounding box area to invoke a jump to the designated destination. In the preferred embodiment, with a text-based URL hyperlink, a jump will be invoked only when the user clicks on the specific characters that are associated with the URL hyperlink.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A computer-implemented method of creating a document hyperlink, comprising the steps of: receiving from a user an input gesture selecting a first object having an associated hyperlink; receiving from the user an input gesture dragging the hyperlink to a selected location on a document page; receiving from the user an input gesture dropping the hyperlink onto the selected location; determining, without further user input, whether the selected location includes a pre-existing document object or not, and: if so, setting a property associated with the pre-existing document object to the value of the dropped hyperlink, thereby linking the pre-existing document object to the first object; if not, copying at least part of the first object into the document page as a new document object and setting a property associated with the new document object to the value of the dropped hyperlink, thereby linking the new document object to the first object.
2. The method of claim 1, further including the step of adding the dropped hyperlink to a list of bookmarks associated with the document page after dropping the hyperlink.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first object is a browser page object.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the hyperlink is a universal resource locator.
5. The method of claim 1, further including the step of visually marking the pre-existing or new document object to indicate that such document object is linked to the first object by means of the hyperlink.
6. A computer program, residing on a computer-readable medium, for creating a document hyperlink, comprising instructions for causing a computer to: receive a user input that selects a first object having an associated hyperlink; receive a user input that drags the hyperlink to a selected location on a document page; receive a user input that drops the hyperlink onto the selected location; determine, without further user input, whether the selected location includes a pre-existing document object or not, and: if so, set a property associated with the pre-existing document object to the value of the dropped hyperlink, thereby linking the pre-existing document object to the first object; if not, copy at least part of the first object into the document page as a new document object and set a property associated with the new document object to the value of the dropped hyperlink, thereby linking the new document object to the first object.
7. The program of claim 6, further comprising instructions for causing a computer to add the dropped hyperlink to a list of bookmarks associated with the document page after dropping the hyperlink.
8. The program of claim 6, wherein the first object is a browser page object.
9. The program of claim 6, wherein the hyperlink is a universal resource locator.
10. The program of claim 6, further comprising instructions for causing a computer to visually mark the pre-existing or new document object to indicate that such document object is linked to the first object by means of the hyperlink.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
May 6, 1997
May 15, 2001
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